Therefore at least at this time call to me: Thou art my father, the guide of my virginity:

“Accusation is censure of wrongdoers.… Of this help the divine Instructor made use by Jeremiah, saying, "You have a prostitute's forehead. You were shameless toward all. You did not call me to the house, I who am your father, and Lord of your virginity." "And a fair and graceful harlot skilled in enchanted potions." With consummate art, after applying to the virgin the disgraceful name of whoredom, he at once calls her back to an honorable life by filling her with shame.”

“Here he calls them back to penance; and first he sets down the calling-back; second, the obstinacy of those called back, chapter 8: and you shall say to them, etc. The first into two. In the first he sets down the warnings of the calling-back; in the second, the arguments for the calling-back, chapter 4: if you return, Israel, says the Lord, be converted to me. The first into two. In the first he calls back the people; in the second he sets down the fruit of the response, there, but how if a woman should despise her lover. The first into two. In the first he calls back from fault; in the second from punishment, there, go, and cry these words against the North. The first into two. In the first he calls back by warnings; in the second by examples, there, and the Lord said to me in the days of Josiah the king. Concerning the first he does two things. First he calls them back from the clemency of God, to prove which he sets forth the common proverb: if a man should put away his wife; which has its rise in Deuteronomy 23: if a man should put away his wife. And he speaks according to the permission given concerning the bill of divorce, on account of the hardness of their heart, Matthew 19, and the return was forbidden, either so that they would not be prone to divorce, or lest, receiving her back afterward by deceit, they should kill her. And from this proverb he takes an argument for the divine clemency: but you have played the harlot with lovers, idols. Isaiah 55: let him return to the Lord, and he will have mercy on him, and to our God, for he is abundant in forgiving. Second he calls them back from their own fault, first setting forth the fault, determining the place: lift up your eyes straight ahead — by right consideration, or in every direction — where not, as it were everywhere, prostrate, like a harlot, of idolatry. Ezekiel 16: you have made a brothel in every street. And the desire of sinning: in the ways you sat, like a harlot awaiting her lovers, and like a robber, awaiting whom he may despoil. Proverbs 7: and behold, a woman comes to meet, in harlot's attire, prepared to deceive souls. Hosea 6: Gilead is a city of workers of idols, tripped up with blood, and like the jaws of robber men. And determining the effect of the sin: and you have polluted the land. Above, 2: you have defiled my land, and made my inheritance an abomination. And then in place of the fault he sets down the punishment: wherefore the drops of the rains have been withheld, by whose power the rain or shower is produced. Isaiah 5: I will command the clouds that they rain no shower upon my vineyard. And he shows the shamelessness of sinners, brow. Below, 6: nay rather, you have not been put to shame with confusion. Second he threatens penance: and first he exhorts them to acknowledge the benefits, therefore — as if to say: let the past time suffice, etc. Father, through creation; you are the guide of my virginity: as if to say: when you led me through the desert, yet I was a virgin. Proverbs 2: she has forsaken the guide of her youth. Isaiah 63: the spirit of the Lord was his guide. Second he exhorts them to ask for mercy, and to say these things: will you be angry forever, or will you continue to the end? Psalm 84: will you be angry with us forever, or will you extend your wrath from generation to generation? Here he shows their contempt as regards the sin of the mouth: behold, you have spoken; which is explained as words of pride, etc.: as regards the sin of deed, and you have done; to which corresponds that, you have filled up evils: as regards the sin of the heart, and you were able, to which that, and you have shown; as though you boasted your power in sin. But this is not in the Hebrew, nor is "for words," etc., in the ancient books; but it seems to be Jerome's exposition. Job 24: God gave him a place of repentance, and he abuses it unto pride. Isa. 5: woe to you who are mighty to drink wine, and men strong to mingle drunkenness.”

“Wilt thou not from this time cry unto me,.... These words are either a confirmation and proof of that impudence with which these people are charged; for had they not been impudent, or had not a forehead like a whorish woman; or were they truly ashamed, they would have cried to the Lord henceforward; called upon him; claimed their relation to him; and owned his favours in time past: or, if they had not been impudent, they would not have dared from this time to have called God their Father and their guide, when they had so wickedly sinned against him; so that this is a charge of hypocrisy and deceit, calling God their Father and guide, when they were at the same time worshipping idols: or rather they are expressive of the wondrous grace and goodness of God towards this people, that had so highly offended him, yet he expostulates with them, puts words into their mouths to return unto him with, saying: my father; I have sinned against thee, and am not worthy of the relation, yet receive me as a returning prodigal: thou art the guide of my youth; or, "hast been": I acknowledge the favours I have received in time past, which is an aggravation of my sin; reject me not, but receive me graciously into thy favour; see Hos 14:2, so the Targum interprets the words as a prayer, "wilt thou not from this time pray before me, saying, thou art my Lord, my Redeemer, which art of old?'' or else they point to them their duty, what they ought to do from henceforward; that seeing the Lord had withheld from them the former and latter rain for their idolatry, it became them to return to him by repentance; and to call upon him, who had been their Father and their guide in time past, to have mercy on them, and avert his judgments from them.”

“from this time--not referring, as MICHAELIS thinks, to the reformation begun the year before, that is, the twelfth of Josiah; it means--now at once, now at last. me--contrasted with the "stock" whom they had heretofore called on as "father" (Jer 2:27; Luk 15:18). thou art--rather, "thou wast." guide of . . . youth--that is, husband (Jer 2:2; Pro 2:17; Hos 2:7, Hos 2:15). Husband and father are the two most endearing of ties.”

“Henceforward, forsooth, it calls upon its God, and expects that His wrath will abate; but this calling on Him is but lip-service, for it goes on in its sins, amends not its life. הלוא, nonne, has usually the force of a confident assurance, introducing in the form of a question that which is held not to be in the least doubtful. מעתּה, henceforward, the antithesis to מעולם, Jer 2:20, Jer 2:27, is rightly referred by Chr. B. Mich. to the time of the reformation in public worship, begun by Josiah in the twelfth year of his reign, and finally completed in the eighteenth year, 2 Chron 34:3-33. Clearly we cannot suppose a reference to distress and anxiety excited by the drought; since, in Jer 3:3, it is expressly said that this had made no impression on the people. On אבי, cf. Jer 2:27. אלּוּף נערי (cf. Pro 2:17), the familiar friend of my youth, is the dear beloved God, i.e., Jahveh, who has espoused Israel when it was a young nation (Jer 2:2). Of Him it expects that He will not bear a grudge for ever. נטר, guard, then like τηρεῖν, cherish ill-will, keep up, used of anger; see on Lev 19:18; Psa 103:9, etc. A like meaning has ישׁמר, to which אף, iram, is to be supplied from the context; cf. Amo 1:11. - Thus the people speaks, but it does evil. דּבּרתּי, like קראתי in Jer 3:4, is 2nd pers. fem.; see in Jer 2:20. Hitz. connects דּבּרתּי so closely with ותּעשׂי as to make הרעות the object to the former verb also: thou hast spoken and done the evil; but this is plainly contrary to the context. "Thou speakest" refers to the people's saying quoted in the first half of the verse: Will God be angry for ever? What they do is the contradiction of what they thus say. If the people wishes that God be angry no more, it must give over its evil life. הרעות, not calamity, but misdeeds, as in Jer 2:33. תּוּכל, thou hast managed it, properly mastered, i.e., carried it through; cf. Sa1 26:25; Kg1 22:22. The form is 2nd pers. fem., with the fem. ending dropped on account of the Vav consec. at the end of the discourse, cf. Ew. 191, b. So long as this is the behaviour of the people, God cannot withdraw His anger.”